Amazing Homemade Marinara Sauce

I had a new recipe I wanted to try that called for two cups store-bought marinara sauce. I just knew I could make it better at home and probably for a lot less cost as well. Since I don’t have any tomatoes in the garden yet and everything from last year is already used up, I knew I’d have to use canned tomatoes for this homemade marinara. That being said, what I ended up with was so delicious I wanted to sit down with a big bowl of it and eat it like soup! This is a super simple recipe and can probably be whipped up with items you already have in your kitchen!

In a large pan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onions and cook until tender, about three minutes. Add garlic and cook, stirring constantly, for about 30 seconds.

To your pot, add the stewed tomatoes, tomato paste, oregano, basil, salt, pepper, and chicken broth. I used reduced sodium chicken broth, but regular would be fine. Bring everything to a boil, then reduce heat to low and allow to simmer 15-30 minutes. The longer the better but I only had 15 minutes the night I made it and it was still super amazing!

Once your marinara is thoroughly simmered, puree with an immersion blender. Like I’ve said before, I absolutely LOVE mine and use it all the time. And I bought it at a garage sale. If you don’t have one, get one. If you can’t find one used, Amazon has them for relatively cheap. Mine is a Braun, it’s old and ugly but it works! You may think you won’t use one, but once you have it you’ll find all sorts of things to use it for, promise! Ok, back to the sauce, puree as much or as little as you’d like. I like my marinara rather chunky so I only pureed it a little. Alternatively to using an immersion blender here, you could use a food processor or a blender.

This recipe made five cups of marinara. I used two right away in the baked pasta recipe, and froze the rest for use in other recipes. I plan on using half of what was leftover as pizza sauce and the other half for spaghetti and meatballs. I’m excited to see how it comes out on the pizza! Enjoy!